


Alternative Tuning

by LightningNymph



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, composer Neku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 15:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9827159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningNymph/pseuds/LightningNymph
Summary: There was a moment of silence after Joshua had finished counting to ten. Later, when the dust's settled, Neku wonders if Joshua ever planned on making it out alive, if he waited purposely to see if Neku would lower his gun first or if he would go through with it.Sometimes, Neku fancies he saw Joshua smile in the split-second before impact, before the static overtook him and he vanished.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea in my mind for years now, but finally decided to get it written down.
> 
> Title explanation: Alternative or alternate tuning means any open-string note-arrangement other than standard tuning. (For example: guitars' standard tuning is E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. Alternative tuning would be any set-up other than that one.) Such alternative tuning arrangements offer different sonorities, chord voicings, and fingerings.

_You want me to defeat you, right?  
Isn't that it?!_

He'd been mistaken about many things those last few minutes -- Beat starting to fade, Shiki reappearing, still mourning Joshua, and hovering over that, the idea that the one person he'd admired would be the one person responsible for all of this, all of that wasn't exactly conductive to getting to sit down and get one's thoughts in order.

He'd been right about _that_ , though. Just not _who_ wanted to be defeated.

* * *

 _"I was lookin' for a way to turn her back to normal, but I didn't find nothin', yo. But I figure if I become the Composer and rule Shibuya... Ya know? Whoever takes out the old Composer gets the job."_  
"Is that how it works?"  
"Yup. And once I'm in charge of Shibuya, I can fix Rhyme. I owe her a second chance, man!"

...

_"The winner gets to be the Composer, and do whatever he likes with Shibuya. If you win, you decide. If I win, I decide.   ...Of course, I've already decided."_

There was a moment of silence after Joshua had finished counting to ten. Later, when the dust's settled, Neku wonders if Joshua ever planned on making it out alive, if he waited purposely to see if Neku would lower his gun first or if he would go through with it.

Sometimes, Neku fancies he saw Joshua smile in the split-second before impact, before the static overtook him and he vanished.

(He tried to grab him, tried to save him, tried to do _something_ , but Joshua passed through his fingers like grains of sand, and then he was gone, and Shibuya started pouring in.)

* * *

"Sorry, Phones," Hanekoma said, offering him another cup of WildKat's house blend. "It'd be dangerous for you to be around them, especially with the Game being so recent. Bein' Composer is a lonely job."

"Is this why..." He can't say the name yet. "...why _He_ gave up on Shibuya? The isolation finally got to him?"

He shot for a sort of dry humour, but by the time the words left his mouth, it wasn't fooling anybody.

Hanekoma pat his shoulder. "Maybe," he admitted before busying himself with cleaning the counter again.

* * *

One of the perks of being the Composer is that you don't technically need to sleep. You _can_ , if you want to, but if you want to spend all night on a caffeine-fuelled drawing binge instead, there's no crash afterwards.

Which is good, actually. Neku doesn't think he can sleep anytime soon.

_cold steel in his hands   metal in his mouth   eight - nine - ten   bang   violet eyes wide in pain_

Neku busies himself with Shibuya instead, to the unending frustration of Conductor Uzuki, who seems to have realized that making sure every Reaper feels their work is rewarding means being on-call all hours of the day. The city thrives, though, and Shiki and Eri's new clothing brand is taking the shopping district by storm.

* * *

Neku's sitting on the edge of Pork City's roof ( _"Attention seekers do tend to favor high places," his memory supplies, the memory unwanted and intrusive_ ), listening to the city's sounds, the thoughts and feelings and snippets of music drifting up to him, when snippets of a vastly different song reach him suddenly.

He snaps to attention immediately, getting to his feet, the melody and tune something heard for the first time but -- somehow -- hauntingly familiar.

With a few strong beats of his wings, the cause of said music landed behind him, glowing ethereally. A brief pause, a change of Frequency, and --

"I didn't think there was a universe where you pulled the trigger."

"Go to hell, Josh."

"Touchy, touchy," Joshua says airily, settling on the edge of the building beside Neku. "Not even a 'hello'? Goodness me, Neku."

Neku takes a deep breath and counts to ten. If he murdered him -- again -- Hanekoma would be in _so_ much trouble trying to sort that out. When he's reasonably sure he won't strangle him (no doubt Joshua knows this -- he hasn't said a thing since arriving), Neku sits down. "Why are you here?"

Joshua shrugs. "Can't I just say hello?"

"You _can_ , but that's not why you're here."

There's a lull in the city's traffic sounds and voices and thoughts, Joshua watching them intently.

"I wanted to see it for myself," Joshua tells him after a moment. "Your Shibuya."

Neku says nothing.

" _My_ Neku didn't shoot. I guess I wanted to know what would have happened if he had."

Deep breaths. Neku closes his eyes. "Why did you do it?"

Violet eyes fix on him. "What do you mean?"

"Don't screw with me, Josh," Neku snaps. "Shibuya. Why did you put it all on the line like that? You thought it was beyond help, but why?"

Briefly -- briefly -- Neku senses Joshua flex unseen wings as if to flee. In an instant, Neku senses Shibuya flare up around him, around Joshua, trapping him. He knows _Joshua_ knows -- power-wise, they're equal, raw Soul versus experience, but this is Neku's battleground, his home turf.

The power struggle was over as quickly as it started. An outside observer might not have noticed anything happened, but Neku knows, and he knows he won.

Sighing, Joshua leaned forward, staring out at the city. "I mentioned it, didn't I?"

Neku frowns. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you wouldn't have known what I meant then," Joshua continued airily. "The same thing, day after day... Now that felt like death. Shibuya was growing stale. I felt it was beyond salvaging, so before it spread to Shinjuku, Minato, Meguro, all of them."

"So the only option was to nuke it all and start over?"

"I wouldn't have done that if I'd thought there was another way," Joshua replies, testily.

Silence falls on the rooftop.

"Your Neku," Neku says after a moment. "What's his life like?"

"Sentimental?" Joshua asks.

"Hypocrite."

"Fair enough." Joshua shrugs. "Picked up playing music rather than just listening. Chiptune music. Signed up to CAT's music label so the albums are selling faster than they can print them."

"Wow."

"I'm quite proud, really," Joshua notes, winding a lock of hair around his finger, adding in the same breath, "Is being the Composer what you thought it would be?"

"Because I had _all that time_ to consider it," Neku growls.

Joshua was silent, anticipating almost. After what felt like an eternity, Neku slumps slightly.

"It's lonely," he admits.

Joshua sighs. "Isn't it just?"


End file.
